A highly efficient milli-joule-level Q-switched Tm,La:CaF2 laser is experimentally demonstrated. By employing an acousto-optic modulator, the diode-pumped pulsed lasers are stably operated at repetition rates ranging from 500 Hz to 10 kHz. Dual-wavelength operation of 1881.7 nm and 1888.5 nm is achieved with slope efficiency of 64.7%. Up to 1.89 mJ of pulse energy is obtained at a pulse width of 100 ns, corresponding to a peak power of 18.88 kW. These results verified that the Tm,La:CaF2 crystal could be a promising candidate for achieving highly efficient and high-energy pulsed lasers.

Using a novel silver nanorods absorber with a localized surface plasmon resonance absorption peak at 1.06 μm, we obtain a diode-pumped passively Q-switched (PQS) Nd,Gd:CaF2 disordered crystal laser output. Its PQS pulse laser performances are studied comprehensively and systematically in this Letter. The single pulse energy and peak power can be attained to 2.15 μJ and 2.06 W, respectively.

A diode-pumped Tm:YLF passively Q-switched laser at 2 μm was first demonstrated by using graphene oxide (GO) as a saturable absorber (SA). In this letter, continuous-wave (CW) laser and pulse laser performances were studied meticulously and systematically. It reasonably showed the dependence of the pulse duration, pulse energy, and pulse repetition rate on the absorbed power. A maximum repetition rate of 38.33 kHz and a single pulse energy of 9.89 μJ were obtained.